Trek to Dayara Bugyal

It was a usual evening. I had gotten back late from work just like any other working day. The work had started taking a toll on me. I desperately needed an escape. In the midst of all the chaos, I was seeking peace. And, just then I saw a long weekend coming. I thought that this is the exact time I should utilize on an outing. Then came the next round of dilemma. Where should I go so that the trip can be squeezed in a time span of 3 days? After giving it a lot of thought, I along with my cousin decided to go to Dayara Bugyal, a trekking adventure of around 9 km which starts from a small village called Barsu in Uttarkashi district of the mystic state, Uttarakhand.

I started on 23rd Dec, 2017 in the early hours of the morning from my hometown, Rishikesh. I had to ride alone on my bike upto Chamba, which is at a distance of about 60 km from Rishikesh. At Chamba, I met my cousin. We both enjoyed hot rejuvenating tea and then started on with our journey. It seemed a bit unrealistic to reach Barsu before it gets too dark to ride. And, we also wanted to go a bit slow, rejoicing the nature around. Keeping our lunch and tea stops into consideration we decided to make a stay at Bhatwari, which is about 10 km from Barsu. We had decided not to ride after 7 p.m.

We rode for several hours before we had our lunch. A delicious pahadi lunch is incomparable. Tummies filled, we started afresh on the further journey. The mountains were getting more beautiful with each mile. The next stop was decided to be the famous city of Uttarkashi, which is around 160 km from Rishikesh.

At around 4 p.m, we reached Uttarkashi. The city was alive even though the winters were strong. My cousin started reminiscing his childhood days, when he used to come here for festivals. It all took a hook on us. And, we went down the memory lane. We stopped and relished some tea. And, getting out of the zone we started again with the ride.

The sun was setting and it was getting darker. The long bike ride was getting tiring now. We wanted to reach Bhatwari as soon as we can so that we can get a hotel room for our stay. It was about 7 p.m when we reached Bhatwari. It was a very small village. Fortunately, we found a hotel room to stay. We had our dinner and went to sleep as our bodies were giving up now and we had to start early the next morning.

It was a very cold morning the next day. We woke up early (our early was 7 a.m). We enjoyed paranthas for breakfast. When, I tried starting my bike, the battery gave in. There was no kick-start option in my bike so it became a problem. Thanks to the slope that I was able to start it. Without taking another stop, we reached Barsu. It was a small trip of about 40 minutes. There was just one open shop there. The locals told us that due to snowfall in Dayara Bugyal, all shops have shut down. Hence, we decided that we will come back to Barsu by the evening.

The time had come. We started on with the trek with high spirits. Since we haven’t walked much in a while, the initial steps were getting very difficult. We took a few stops at frequent intervals. Though it was difficult to walk but the view was getting finer and was pulling us up. After we had finished a quarter of the journey, we saw the first stretch of shimmering white snow. Along with that our smiles grew wider and we carried on. The snow was getting slippery now. There were a few other trekkers that we met on the way.

Now, the snow had gotten thick. We clicked many pictures though we were getting short of poses now. After having walked a bit our bodies adapted and even though we were hell tired, our legs kept moving. It took us about 4.5 hours to reach Dayara. The meadows were all covered in snow. The view was heavenly. It was so calm and serene. We mustered some courage and lied down on the snow for a while. It was a soothing experience.

After enjoying the snow and the view, we decided that it would be good if we trek down and go back to Uttarkashi for our stay. It would help us gain some miles before we head back the next day. The down trek was easy and we reached back to Barsu in about 2 hours. We had tea and Maggi there and started for Uttarkashi at 6 p.m.

We were tired but still headed back to Uttarkashi and reached there at around 8 p.m. We were famished. After having booked a hotel room, we ordered some delicious food and the series of photo uploading started.

Dayara Bugyal is a nice travel destination if you want to get away from the chaos of the city for a while. I still get happy thinking about those mesmerizing views. They left me filled with memories to relish for a lifetime.